System, You Didn't Say the Villain Can Read Minds! - Chapter 67

Chapter 67

◎I’m Not Falling for That!◎

Her stomach rumbled, a groan of hunger.

Mo Jiu was hungry.

This was normal.

She had been locked in the prison for at least half a day, and aside from Yun Wenzhou’s two brief visits, no one had paid her any attention.

And Yun Wenzhou clearly wasn’t going to bring her food.

Just as she was considering asking the System to conjure up something for her, she suddenly caught the distant scent of cooking.

Damn, that smells so good.

Did the prison guards start eating?

Wait, are there guards in this prison? She hadn’t heard any voices for so long. Don’t they chat?

And why are they eating so late? Aren’t they hungry?

All these thoughts vanished the moment Yun Wenzhou walked in, carrying a plastic bag full of meal boxes.

The Imperial Marshal, dressed in a white military uniform, was holding a huge plastic bag stacked high with meal boxes. Anyone would think she was bringing food for the entire prison.

However, she didn’t hand the meal boxes to anyone. Instead, she walked straight to Mo Jiu’s cell door, unlocked it, and stepped inside.

Mo Jiu watched her vigilantly.

Is she planning to make me die from the delicious smell? Let me see it but not eat it? What a cruel punishment!

Yun Wenzhou: “…”

Yun Wenzhou placed the bag of meal boxes on the floor, bent down, took out one box, and opened it.

The aroma of black pepper beef wafted into Mo Jiu’s nose, causing her to involuntarily swallow.

Ahhh this is too much! Too much! This is more torturous than whipping me! Seriously!

Yun Wenzhou ignored Mo Jiu’s internal voice, picked up a slice of beef with a stainless steel fork, and offered it to Mo Jiu’s mouth.

Mo Jiu was stunned, looking at her incredulously: “What is the meaning of this?”

Oh, I get it. She’s tempting me to bite, then she’ll snatch it away before I can, quickly eat it herself, and give me a smug look, right? I’m not falling for that!

Yun Wenzhou expressionlessly moved the fork forward, practically stuffing the meat into Mo Jiu’s mouth.

When offered delicious food, there was no reason to refuse! Mo Jiu ultimately succumbed to her instinct to eat, took the beef with her mouth, and ate it silently.

A little salty, but… delicious!

Wuwuwu, so good! Is there more? More? Just one more bite!

…Wait, something’s not right. Why is she feeding me?

Mo Jiu looked at Yun Wenzhou suspiciously.

This beautiful woman with ash-blue long hair was staring at her with red eyes, like a predator watching its prey.

It was strange; just the change in hair and eye color made Yun Wenzhou feel completely different from the first two worlds. Should she say she was more dangerous or more aggressive?

However, she also had more presence.

It gave Mo Jiu a feeling of: She truly is the Imperial Marshal…

The thought of having pinned someone like her on the bed and done that made Mo Jiu feel a subtle sense of unreality.

This dangerous woman is my wife. So exciting!

Yun Wenzhou: “…”

“You still don’t seem to fully understand your situation,” Yun Wenzhou finally spoke, her voice clear and cold, her tone indifferent. “You are not the Queen of the Empire now; you are merely my prisoner. Whether you receive food and survive depends entirely on me.”

“I know. What about it?” Mo Jiu blinked innocently.

I am your prisoner, yes. What’s the problem?

Why does she immediately say I don’t understand my situation? I haven’t even said anything yet, have I?

Yun Wenzhou silently forked a second slice of meat and offered it to Mo Jiu’s mouth.

Having already eaten one piece, Mo Jiu no longer hesitated. She willingly opened her mouth and took the second slice, though her mind couldn’t help but wonder.

She didn’t drug me, did she? Drug me? That doesn’t seem like her style… but you never know.

Forget it. Considering how good the meat is, I’ll accept it even if it’s drugged.

My style? Interesting. I don’t even know what my style is.

Yun Wenzhou looked at Mo Jiu, her red eyes slightly narrowed. She wasn’t sure how to steer the conversation toward her “style,” so she tentatively asked: “I see you’re truly hungry. Aren’t you afraid I’ve drugged it?”

“I am afraid, but I still have to eat,” Mo Jiu swallowed the beef before replying. “Didn’t you also eat the food I personally cooked?”

But I didn’t drug it, so I’ll bet you didn’t either.

Yun Wenzhou scoffed, not skilled at beating around the bush, and asked directly: “In your eyes, what kind of person am I? Am I still trustworthy, even after I knocked you out and imprisoned you here?”

“Do you want to hear the truth?” The Yun Wenzhou in Mo Jiu’s eyes wasn’t perfect, and she didn’t want to lie—at least not in this world.

“Yes, I want to hear the truth.” Yun Wenzhou said this, though she didn’t care about the spoken answer, because even if Mo Jiu lied, she could get the truer answer through her inner thoughts.

Mo Jiu, unaware that Yun Wenzhou’s mind-reading ability had been unsealed, recalled the Yun Wenzhou from the first two worlds while answering.

“You are obsessive, but trustworthy.”

You’re dangerous to enemies, but you make me feel safe.

“When you genuinely like someone, you’d give everything for them. When you truly hate someone, you won’t give them a chance to linger; you’ll only make them savor the taste of pain before death.”

You love fiercely and hate fiercely. It’s a bit extreme, but I can understand and accept it now.

“I didn’t treat you well before, so your retaliation doesn’t surprise me. But you didn’t kill or torment me; you imprisoned me here, which suggests you don’t hate me to the core, right?”

Ugh, if only it had been a few days earlier, maybe I wouldn’t even be locked up.

Mo Jiu wondered why the System made her enter the plot at this delicate time. Or was this the very beginning of everything, and nothing had happened before—was it all implanted false memories?

Yun Wenzhou had prepared herself to be insulted, so she was taken aback by this answer.

Mo Jiu’s reply, both spoken and internal, was surprisingly positive—completely different from the people outside the prison.

Furthermore…

She truly understood her. More than she understood herself.

“Indeed, if I fall in love with someone, I’d give my life for them,” Yun Wenzhou responded flatly. “But unfortunately, the person worthy of that treatment probably hasn’t been born yet.”

So, she hasn’t fallen in love with me yet?] Mo Jiu sighed in her heart.

Yun Wenzhou glanced at her, then turned her gaze elsewhere: “I don’t trust you. In fact, I don’t trust anyone. As the Queen Bee, do you know what Soldier Bees go through after birth?”

“Not really… Are you willing to tell me?” Mo Jiu asked tentatively.

Yun Wenzhou didn’t reply to her question, continuing on her own: “Soldier Bees are the Empire’s blades; they are tempered from birth. A bunch of retired, useless waste from the battlefield claimed to be training us, but they were just using us as punching bags. Endless training, endless physical punishment, and a survival-of-the-fittest mentality spread like a virus from top to bottom—my peers who suffered just like me, as long as they were stronger than me, would join the instructors in bullying me. The only way to make them stop was to fight back, beat them until they were afraid, until they dared not come near me again.”

“My childhood was spent in that kind of environment. No one cared whether I lived or died except myself. This is normal. Soldier Bees are consumables meant to protect the Empire. When one batch dies, another replaces it. There are plenty of replacements in the cultivation pods anyway.”

“Why didn’t I resist? Because no one can resist the Queen Bee’s pheromone suppression. If that’s the case, then just develop a counter-agent, right?—With that thought, I secretly cultivated a research team. Everyone around me supported me, and they anticipated the vision of eventually trampling the Queen Bee underfoot with me.”

“But…”

At this point, Yun Wenzhou stopped, not only because the words that followed were hard to say but also because she wanted to hear Mo Jiu’s thoughts on this.

Would she pity her? Or mock her for getting what she deserved?

She had self-righteously seized the Empire, only to find that everyone was merely submitting to her on the surface, just as they had only submitted to the Queen Bee on the surface before…

Was this the destiny of a ruler? To dominate the Empire, not through respect, but through fear?

Yun Wenzhou turned her gaze back to Mo Jiu’s face, which was filled with a look of deep melancholy—a look that could instantly captivate any Soldier Bee.

Mo Jiu sighed in her heart: [How could this be…

Why did Yun Wenzhou in every world have such a tragic past?

My heart aches.

I want to hold her.

[If only I had known earlier. If I had known earlier, I would have held her for three days and three nights, let her fully feel my love, and, most importantly—let her know that she is needed. I need her.]

I need her.

Yun Wenzhou was stunned.

Is she sure Mo Jiu needs her, and not the other way around?

It was she who craved Mo Jiu’s soothing, both psychic and physical.

It was she who craved Mo Jiu’s gaze and touch.

Mo Jiu needs her?

“Ha.” Yun Wenzhou laughed, a hint of self-mockery in her voice.

“I don’t trust you,” she emphasized again, but her next sentence was, “Because I don’t trust you, I only dared to confide this to you while you are chained up. This way, even if you look down on me from above, you are still my prisoner.”

“Why would I look down on you from above?” Mo Jiu couldn’t help but retort, then continued in a tone of a sigh: “You say I don’t understand my situation, but how much do you understand yours? Is a Queen Bee ‘high and mighty’ just because the word ‘Queen’ is attached to it? But just as you didn’t choose to be born a Soldier Bee, I didn’t choose to be the Queen Bee either.”

“In my view, Soldier Bees, Queen Bees, and Worker Bees have no superior or inferior status; there are only differences in roles. Different roles, different responsibilities. You are responsible for protecting the Empire, and I am responsible for soothing you, soothing all the Soldier Bees.”

“I can indeed dominate you with my psychic power, but that’s less a superiority of the Queen Bee and more a survival instinct of the colony. The sole Queen Bee of the entire Empire, if she has no means of self-preservation when her combat power is inferior to the Soldier Bees, wouldn’t the colony quickly collapse?”

“Speaking of which…” Mo Jiu suddenly realized, “Now that the Empire has no Queen Bee, the Soldier Bees are no longer controlled by a specific person but by medicine. If you absolutely refuse to give me another chance, then I suggest you firmly control the drug supply channel in your own hands, or it’s hard to say what might happen.”

Those Soldier Bees who don’t submit to me probably won’t submit to Xiao Zhou either. Now that the medicine has been developed, once they get the formula, they won’t need to submit to anyone. It would be fine if they just went off to enjoy themselves, but I’m afraid someone with ill intentions might seize the Empire a second time.

Although this wasn’t in the script, once the world was created, everyone’s actions were free, and anything was possible. Otherwise, why would she need to control anything?

Damn it, why didn’t I think of this before… I was too busy chasing my wife.

Yun Wenzhou stared at Mo Jiu for a moment.

“What is it?” Mo Jiu felt an inexplicable panic from her gaze, an awkwardness of being seen through. “Don’t think I’m threatening you. I’m serious. Unless you initiate a thorough reform of the Empire, you can only rely on medicine to dominate it… Otherwise? Rely on your military strength? No matter how strong you are, can you fight the entire Empire?”

“So what?” Yun Wenzhou’s face was calm.

Though she said that… a sense of unease genuinely surfaced in her heart.

Yun Wenzhou admitted her bravado was only on the surface.

She first thought she was liberating the Empire, then realized she was seizing the Empire, and now she finally understood what a huge mess she had made.

I can’t do this. This Empire… she couldn’t control it at all.

One more second and she would collapse…

Panicked on the inside, she remained outwardly firm: “Stop worrying about me. Mind your own business.”

As Yun Wenzhou spoke, she took the sidearm from her waist, aimed it at the chains binding Mo Jiu’s wrists, and fired: “Bang! Bang!”

Mo Jiu flinched, instinctively covering her ears.

She covered them… Wait?

She looked at her hands, which were still cuffed but free, and was a little slow to react.

…Did you really have to use a gun…?

What brand of plastic bag are you to be so dramatic?

But, it’s kind of cute.

Mo Jiu smiled at Yun Wenzhou: “Made a decision? Going to take the bet with me?”

Yun Wenzhou “hmph’d” once: “I’m too lazy to feed you. Eat it yourself.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll move you to a different prison later.”

“Are you sure it’s a prison? Will it happen to look a lot like a bedroom?”

“…Shut up. Eat.”

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